DENR to use deodorizers on Navotas dump

To help stop the stench from the Navotas Controlled Dumpsite Facility (CDF) to Obando, Bulacan, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will be experimenting with the use of organic pesticides and deodorizers.

According to Albert Magalang, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Commission’s secretariat, the DENR will start reviewing the list of organic pesticides and deodorizers from the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA).

"We will review the list of FPAs environment friendly pesticides and deodorizers that we could use. Although there are commercial suppliers who have offered their products, we still have to look at their contents and composition. We have to use only green labels," Magalang said.

Magalang said the pesticides will be used to control the number of flies that have started to breed at the dump.

"It will be the first time that we will be using pesticides for the flies," he said.

According Magalang, they have tried using enzymes to decompose the garbage at the Navotas dump and try to remove the stench.

However, the method was not effective.

"We tried using enzymes but the stink remained. We still have to find out why it has been not effective," Magalang said.

Magalang said that the eradication of odor at the dump, especially during the unloading of garbage from the barges to the site, wasa key issue tackled at yesterday’s technical meeting at the DENR main office in Quezon City.

It will be recalled that residents of Obando, Bulacan, have been complaining of the stink that was emanating from the Navotas dump.

Navotas and Obando share the Binuwangan River as a common natural boundary. The Navotas dump is situated on a 10-hectare former fishpond near the boundary.

Barges carrying garbage from Manila’s Pier 18 enter the Binuwangan River on their way to the controlled dump.

According to Magalang, the barges are ferrying garbage that were intended for the aborted dump in Semirara Island.

Yesterday’s technical meeting was attended by representatives from the DENR, the Department of Health, the Department of Science and Technology and by representatives from the local governments of Obando and Navotas.